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Landscape photography is the most captured type of images. The reason is simple, the beauty of nature is always in front of us and you don’t need to pose or make the landscape comfortable to properly achieve results. There is many type of landscape photography, abstract, minimalist, impressionistic and more.

Landscape photography is better captured 30 minutes prior to sunrise until 90 minutes after sunrise and also 2 hours before sunset to 30 minutes after sunset.

TOOLS

When achieving magnificent landscape photography, some tools will be required.

Filters: Circular polarise filter is perfect for landscape to add and control density in the greens, blues and reds. It will also make it possible to control reflection off water, snow and sand. The Density neutral filter will allow for a longer photography exposure to show movement into the landscape mostly with water and sky.

Tripod: A good, steady and light tripod is recommended. You will only buy a tripod once if you purchase the right one. Take you time and be ready to invest more then you planned…carbon fiber is expensive. Think about your style of photography to properly select the head of your tripod.

Remote shutter: A remote shutter will save you from camera shake. When pressing the shutter, a vibration will be create on your camera body which will give you a little softness. If your are interested in timelapse photography, invest in the remote with intervalometer.

Various lenses can be used to photograph landscape, from a wide angle to a super telephoto. Don’t think that a focal length has only one use. Be creative, have fun and shoot something different.

TIPS:

Think about your depth of field. What do you want to show.

Think about a focal point.

Think foregrounds. They can make your picture look totally different.

Use lines to show your landscape. They can bring your eye to your main subject.

Portrait photography can be so much fun but can also be the biggest pain. It’s fun to create moody, artistic and representative images of ones personality. My main objective with portrait photography is to capture the essence of someone while making them look beautiful.

Know your subject

In portraiture, take the 10-15 minutes to discuss with your subject instead of shooting right away. You need to make them feel comfortable. Your confidence will make them confident and more at ease. Talking with your subject will transport them into another frame of mind. Find out what there passions are, talk to them about that. This is where general knowledge will help you to have proper communication with the person in front of you!

Relax, enjoy and make it fun!

Your confidence will also affect your subjects energy. Have you ever noticed how one bad coworker can ruin the mood in a lunch room? The same can happen with portrait photography. You need to have energy, positive reinforcement for the subject and the confidence of achieving the desired look. You can relax because most portraiture session are only going to give you a couple of amazing shots and many good shots. You are working for the amazing one. Most portraits are taken with the camera at (or around) the eye level of the subject. While this is good common sense – completely changing the angle that you shoot from can give your portrait a real WOW factor.To build confidence, you simply have to take photographs. Try to shoot on a weekly basis. Framing is a technique where by you draw attention to one element of an image by framing it with another element of the image. Framing gives an image depth and draws the eye to a point of interest in the image. You could do it by placing your subject in a window or doorway, have them look through a small gap or even use their hands around their face. Portraits can be so static – but what if you added some movement into them? This can be achieved in a few ways:

Make your subject move

make an element move around your subject while keeping him still.

Move your camera or zoom to introduce movement.

TIP: Take your time. I see too many people rushing when they are in a portrait session. Take your time to achieve greater results.

Gear

In the equipment spectrum of portrait photography, multiple tools are available to achieve various lightings and moods. The first part will be lenses. A great lens will allow you to have a shallow DOF to direct the eye of the beholder to your subject. The DOF control will be important since you either need to eliminate the background or your need to show it. Various focal lengths can be use to create amazing portrait photography. Don’t hold anything back by thinking that portraiture is only done with one lens or a longer focal length.

TIP: Know your equipment. It looks pretty funny if you are shooting a friend or a client and do not know how to operate your camera or flash.

You can use a 14mm lens

Here is an example with a 24mm wide angle

Here is one with a 50mm

Now an 85mm lens

With a 300mm lens

And last one with a 500mm

Reflectors

A medium size reflector of 32 inches can do wonders on your portrait photography. They fold up nice and can be put in your laptop pocket of your photography bag. I will suggest that you either purchase a 5 in 1 reflector or purchase a white and silver reflector. The contrast will be control by the side or reflector that you use. White will reflect a soft light, silver and gold a harsh light with a tint depending on which one you use. If you do not have the budget for a reflector, you can always go to the local craft store and you can purchase a white foam core. If you need it silver, go to the dollar store and by yourself some aluminium foil and stick it on one side.

TIP: Use the reflector overhead of the subject for the light to look natural and flattering.

Candid styles of photography are increasingly becoming popular both in general day to day photography but also in formal photographic situations. Probably the best way to take spontaneous photographs is to always be ready to do so. Taking your camera with you everywhere also helps people to be more at ease with you taking their photo. I find that my friends and family just expect me to have my camera out so when I do fire it up it’s not a signal to them to pose but it’s a normal part of our interaction – this means that they are relaxed and the photos are natural. Don’t be afraid to shoot lots of images to get the right one. With experience your number of keepers will grow. You might want to think about not using flash so that you do not distract the subjects and the others around. While Candid Photography is about capturing the spontaneity of a moment and getting that perfect shot at the right split second of time I find that if you think ahead and anticipate what is about to unfold in front of you that you can greatly increase the chances of getting some great shots. So at a wedding get to the church early (or even go to the rehearsal) and think about what will happen during the ceremony and where will be best for you to stand to capture each moment. Which way will people be facing? What will they be doing? What will the light be like? Thinking through these issues will save you having to run around repositioning yourself when you should be shooting images – it’ll also mean you take a whole heap less shots of the back of people’s heads! Images of people doing things tend to be much more interesting than people sitting passively doing nothing. For one your subject will be focussed upon something which adds energy to a photo (and takes their focus off you) but it also puts them in context and adds an element of story to your image. Timing is everything in Candid shots so wait until they are distracted from you and fully focussed upon what they are doing or who they are with and you’ll inject a feeling into your shots of them being unaware and that the viewer of your image is looking on unseen.Something very interesting happens when you photograph more than one person in an image at a time – it introduces relationship into the shot. Even if the two (or more) people are not really interacting in the shot it can add depth and a sense of story into the viewing of the image. Of course ideally in candid shots you’d like some interaction between your subjects as that will add emotion into the shot also as we the viewer observe how the people are acting. A trick that I often use in candid shots is to purposely include something in the foreground of the shot to make it look as though I’m hiding behind it. You might do this with by shooting over someone’s shoulder, by including a little of a tree branch or the frame of a doorway.

PHOTOJOURNALISM STYLE

Photojournalism style differ from candid by the fact that a photojournalism portrait will explain an event while being a portrait. You don’t direct, you don’t tell people what to do. You are there to observe and absorb the environment and document it as it is, just like you don’t want to lie to the public when you publish an image. Many photographers use the two names (candid and photojournalism) as if they are the same. However, photojournalism is not just a series of random photographs where the subject is not looking at the camera; nor is it any photograph shot with black and white film. Photojournalism is more of the philosophy on how the photographer approaches photographing a subject or event. Wedding photojournalists, like news photographers, photograph the wedding as an observer, and do not interfere or try to force moments into happening. A true wedding photojournalist will observe and capture key moments and a variety of other shots that help tell the story without any interference. On the other hand, candid photography can be any photo that isn’t posed.

Technique

There is no basic rule in any field of photography since there are too many variables. Portraiture does not differ from that. You need to see your light, you need to control it with reflectors or flash, you need to decide on your settings and more.

The first rule is that your Autofocus system should be in AF-s or One shot for static portrait. You should at least work in Aperture priority (A, Av) and understand that you need a minimum of 1/125th of second shutter speed. (Your camera will determine the shutter speed when in aperture mode but your ISO will give you the desired speed for stopping motion or showing motion) When you are capturing images with a wide angle try to be at the height of your subjects sternum so that distortion will be more controlled. With a standard or telephoto lens, try to be at your subjects chins height for a more intimate and connected portrait.

TIP: Have a goal to your madness. Create a desired look or lighting for a portrait don’t just shoot to shoot. Think about the result, the mood, the feel. If it’s not what you are looking for, then change it to your taste.

Autofocus is a system relied on by 99% of photographers in the modern era. To achieve proper AF you first need to analyze your subject. Do I want to show motion or stop it? What do I want to show in this image? What is my main subject? Once you have answered these basic questions, you will know which AF to select. You will see that learning these is very easy.

One shot or single AF (AF-S)

This is the AF system you want to use for STATIC subjects. In portrait photography you will use this AF to properly achieve your focus and select the desired point for the proper composition. You will use AF-S or One Shot with architectural photography, macrophotography, portrait photography, landscape photography and more.

Ai Servo or Continuous AF (AF-C)

This is the AF system you want to use for CONTINUOUS autofocus. This means when you want to shoot a subject that is moving towards or away from you. In sports, this AF system will be depended on. With the proper autofocus point selected, you will be able to achieve a great composition while capturing fast sport images.

TIP: When shooting sports, learn to use your AF-c or Ai servo autofocus and your Af-on button near your thumb behind the camera. This will make the autofocus work continuously without having to hunt for focus after a picture is taken.

AF SENSORS and the importance of fast lenses.

There are high-precision (“cross type”) autofocus sensors among the total autofocus sensors of your camera. For example, the flagship model of Canon, the 1D markIV has 39 cross type sensors out of a total of 45. The Nikon D3s has 15 cross type sensor out of a possibility of 51.

Nikon D3 AF points compared to Nikon D90 AF points.

The high precision sensors are sensitive to both horizontal and vertical lines, while the remainder of the “assist” sensors are sensitive only to horizontal lines. This is very important to keep in mind if you are focusing using a lens that uses few or no high precision sensors. High precision sensors are about twice as sensitive to vertical lines as they are to horizontal, and all other sensors can only respond to horizontal lines. A judicious composition when setting autofocus can exploit that bias. If you have access to high precision sensors, prefer vertical detail with them, while if you are “stuck” with other sensors ensure that you are providing them some horizontal detail.

Please re-read and re-read that last paragraph until you understand it fully.

Lenses with maximum apertures of f2.8 allow the camera to use all high precision sensors. In low light or other situations that are hostile to autofocus, that’s a big deal. Lenses with a maximum aperture of f4.0 use only the center focus sensor in its “high precision” mode, and use the other sensors in their “horizontal line” only mode. Lenses with a maximum aperture of f5.6 use all sensors in their “horizontal-only” mode, and lenses with a maximum aperture of f8 use only the center sensor point, and that with horizontal sensitivity only.

Thus, while shooting with a f4 lens, it does not harness all of the camera’s high precision autofocus sensors. Your decision to use it instead of a f2.8 lens for a low-light shoot must be made weighing this and a variety of other factors.

TIP: Use your flash to achieve better focus in low light and with slower lenses. The modern DSLR flashes have a AF assist light that will help you to focus faster and with more precision without using the light of the flash.

Sports shooting can be one of the most daunting types of photography, even to the advanced shooter. The slightest mistake can ruin a shot. Having said that, it’s also important to remember that with sports, you get a lot of chances to get a shot with great impact. There’s a built-in drama unlike any other subject I’ve come across.

You will have a head start in sports photography if you understand the sport and it’s rules. This will get you in better situation for capturing “the shot” of the event.

You will need various elements to succeed in sports photography such as Talent, Skill (learn your photography basics), Knowledge (understand your subject), Practice (shoot lots of images to understand the sport, movement and technique), Desire (sacrifices will be needed to achieve a different point of view), Work (commit to be the best) and Luck(luck is also a great factor since you need to be in the right place at the right time, it will shine from time to time)

THE GEAR

One of the biggest barrier to sports photography is equipment and technique. It will be hard to achieve a great result without fast and long lenses. The AF system of your camera will also be very important for tracking subjects.

The basic lens for this type of photography is a 70-200mm f/2.8. This lens should be on your camera if you want to shoot fast moving subjects from about 30-60 feet. This will allow you to get “close” to the action for a greater and more personal photography. The aperture of this lens will let you freeze or show motion to your ability and control. Don’t be afraid to change your angle of view for a more dramatic scene. I will always suggest to get low and then go high if possible. Changing your cropping and vantage point will put variety in your photography.

Think about images that will express an idea or a moment in the competition.

SHUTTER SPEED

With a fast lens (f/2.8) you can decide if you want to stop motion or show motion while shooting sports. A basic shot is stopping motion in sports to an important moment in the competition or the day of the athlete. You can also show speed and effort in slower shutter speed to create a different feel and drama to an event.

If you want to stop motion, you will need a shutter speed of about 1/250 minimum. To easily achieve this speed, put your camera in Tv or S mode. After that, put your camera at 1/250. If the aperture blinks or says LO, bring your ISO up for more light sensitivity. Image stabilization (IS) or Vibration reduction (VR) can be very helpful when showing motion and panning. They will also be recommended in a telephoto lens since your field of view is small. A minor movement of the lens means a big movement in the picture.

You will need to put your camera in a continuous focus or Ai servo. This will allow you to choose your AF point for proper composition and follow your subjects with ease in your viewfinder. This mode of focusing let’s the camera do the work for you. The focusing distances changes with the change of your subject.

TIP: Use the AF-On button when shooting sports for faster AF and better continuous AF. This way your AF will not have to restart when you have taken some shots.

HOCKEY

For great hockey photography, you will need a large aperture lens. You will also need to get closer to the ice. You will need to overexposed the images by at least 2 thirds to a full stop of light to get an ice that will be white and not grey! If you are shooting in Shutter speed priority, then you will need to compensate your images to properly exposed your subjects. To get a more personal photography, you will need to shoot at the bottom of the windows (just over the boards). Hold your lens hood up against the window to eliminate the reflections from your images. Watch the play not to get hit by your camera in the eye and to get a black eye!

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE ANGLES

The angle at which you capture your subject is very important in sport photography. You need to get really low or high. You should try to photograph the event in a way that the human eye is not seeing it live in person. Like you will see in the Kayaking picture…I went into the water to get as low as possible angle for a different point of view. This added lots of drama to the images since the water seems higher then the rider.

The same idea is behind this shot also. We can almost see under the car * Caution this is dangerous if the car fails to achieve the corner, I am getting hit by the race car*

This images was captured to show the concentration and the intensity that a race car driver needs to achieve and maintain.

TECHNIQUES

Master your photography and your equipment. A the paste that sports move, you need to understand your photography gear perfectly and know how to make it perform. Use your vision when at a sporting event. Don’t just look at the event but try to live it and see what really happens during an event! Be prepared at all time for anything. Sports are interesting because the story behind the event changes constantly. You need to get into the proper position to shoot the images. With any sports, you need to capture moments while following the ball and also without the ball! When following an action perfect timing is everything. That is why you should understand the sport that you are photographing. Always pay attention to your surroundings during a sporting event. Fans can create an amazing image, a car crash can happen at anytime, the last buzzer shot can go in! You will need to take chances with your photography to show motion and freeze motion to represent properly a sporting event.

TIP: Photograph the star since they will be talk about the most in the next days newspaper.

Life offers us some of the most beautiful lighting and it is literally up to us to step up to the challenge of unpredictability, to seek it and to use it properly. As a natural light photographer, I do make use of reflectors and diffusers to play with the available light and tweak it to my liking.

TIP: The reflector needs to be proportional to your subject to create an appealing effect.

When shooting outside in full daylight, many people feel tempted to either use flash or place their subjects in open shade. Yes, it is true, open shade makes for easy light, but the more interesting light, the shadows, the sparkle, lies in the sun! Push your comfort level by stepping out of the shade, and shoot tons! Photograph in full daylight, at all hours of the day. Shooting mid-day will be the most challenging, but be creative! Look for interesting shadows and shapes, and play with them. Stop and analyze a scene before shooting and look for interesting vantage points that enable the light to play its amazing tricks.

When photographing people in daylight, my recommendation is to begin by shooting with the sunlight in back of your subjects. Most people will squint in full sun and/or blink frequently. By back lighting your subjects, you will allow them to be more comfortable and in return they most certainly will be more cooperative!

What happens with blown-out skies? The answer to that is “nothing”! There really is nothing wrong with exposing for the subject and letting the rest go where it goes. Perfectly lit images have their place, but I find it can be restrictive and really unnecessary when photographing people. The most important fact about portrait photography is the emotion and the moment that you capture.

With the use of reflectors, you can minimize the contrast and reclaim some detail in the background. A silver reflector will add a nice clean sharpness to the image (I really love a silver reflector when shooting professional head-shots), but remember that it is a strong reflector and you do not want to blind your subject! I use a simple white reflector most of the time to slightly open up the shadows but keep the charm of back lighting. It goes without saying that to make the most out of the use of reflectors you will need extra hands – this is when a helper comes in very handy!

When shooting inside use window light! Window light is soft and it will be charming on your subjects. A reflector on the opposite side of the window will work wonders to open up the shadows.

An important aspect of portrait photography is the psychology of your subject and yourself. You need to be confident, you need to show positive energy during a shooting. This energy will bring the best out of your subject. You need to take a good 15-20 minutes at the beginning of a shooting to have a real discussion with your client. Take the time to learn what makes them happy, what makes time smile and get in their comfort zone. Talk to your subject all the time. Don’t stay behind your camera too much or you will lose your subjects attention.

TIP: take your time, think about what you are shooting and what you want to achieve. I find too many photographers shoot to quickly! Take the time to properly expose your shot so that then you can talk and create reactions of your subject.

Shoot in Aperture or manual mode to properly control your DOF. Try to shoot some basic and starting images with a focal length of 50mm. Take your time and talk with your subject. This will get them at ease and more confident. Then you can include the environment in the images and make variations of images. Don’t be afraid to play with framing and focal lengths to create more dramatic images and powerful images.

You might have noticed when examining shots after taking them that at times images can come out with an orange, blue, yellow etc look to them – despite the fact that to the naked eye the scene looked quite normal. The reason for this is that images different sources of light have a different ‘color’ (or temperature) to them. Fluorescent lighting adds a bluish cast to photos whereas tungsten (incandescent/bulbs) lights add a yellowish tinge to photos.

White balance is the tool that allows you to capture the real colour of the scene in front of your eyes and camera. As seen during a rainbow, light can take multiple variations of colour. This is important to achieve vibrant and accurate colours.

Here are some of the basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras:

Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.

Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.

Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.

Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.

Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.

Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.

Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little.

The automatic white balance works well under most situation in a modern DSLR.

TIP

Use auto white balance for every situation except for tungsten light (orange lights from home). While in a tungsten environment, you want to put your white balance mode in tungsten since you will achieve better white balance which will not give you the tendency to underexpose your images.

TIP

Put on an CTO gel in front of your flash when using it in a tungsten environment to create a more realistic look. Put your camera in tungsten white balance to achieve proper white

Custom white balance

You can always use tools to achieve proper white balance with your camera. The best tool that I found for such a job is a grey card. The 18% card is the neutral colour and exposure control to be used to achieve the best custom white balance settings. I use the Color Checker by xrite to achieve the best WB, exposure and colour profiling for commercial work.

TIP: Proper exposure will be crucial to achieve the proper custom white balance.

My color checker gave me control over my colors to produce a product shot with the precise and vibrant color without any cast.

it’s the time that the 2 shutters are open to show the scene to your sensor. It’s the common term use to define the exposure in photography.This is an important factor to understand to achieve sharp images. The shutter speed will allow you to stop or show motion in a photography. There are some rules about shutter speed to be understood.

Rule #1

The shutter speed should always be greater than the focal length. This means, if you shoot with a lens at 200mm then your shutter speed should never be under 1/200th of a second. If you are shooting with an 85mm focal length then you speed should never be under 1/80th of a second. This basic rules allows you to freeze your motion when taking a picture. This is where Image stabilization has an effect. You can achieve images in lower shutter speed of STATIC subjects. This technology will not allowed to achieve a sharp picture of a soccer player at 1/60th of a second but it will allow you to achieve a crisp images at 1/60th of a second of a building.

Rule #2

– For lifestyle portrait photography, you do not want to go under a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second or above.

– For sports photography, if you want to freeze motion you will want to shoot images at 1/500th and above To show motion with a pan you will what to shoot at a maximum of 1/125th of second.

– For architectural photography, you want to select your lowest usable ISO and use a tripod for a longer exposition.

When considering what shutter speed to use in an image you should always ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how you’d like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene you have the choice of either freezing the movement (so it looks still) or letting the moving object intentionally blur (giving it a sense of movement). To freeze movement in an image (like in the surfing shot above) you’ll want to choose a faster shutter speed and to let the movement blur you’ll want to choose a slower shutter speed. The actual speeds you should choose will vary depending upon the speed of the subject in your shot and how much you want it to be blurred.

Motion is not always bad – There are times when motion is good. For example when you’re taking a photo of a waterfall and want to show how fast the water is flowing, or when you’re taking a shot of a racing car and want to give it a feeling of speed, or when you’re taking a shot of a star scape and want to show how the stars move over a longer period of time etc. In all of these instances choosing a longer shutter speed will be the way to go.

PANNING

Panning is a technique that can produce amazing results (if you perfect it…. or get lucky) but is also one that can take a lot of practice to get right.

The basic idea behind panning as a technique is that you pan your camera along in time with the moving subject and end up getting a relatively sharp subject but a blurred background.

This gives the shot a feeling of movement and speed. It’s particularly useful in capturing any fast moving subject whether it be a racing car, running pet, cyclist etc.

I’ve found that panning seems to work best with moving subjects that are on a relatively straight trajectory which allows you to predict where they’ll be moving to. Objects that are moving side to side are challenging and can result in messy looking shots as the motion blur can be quite erratic.

The panning technique will require to learn your AF system. You will need to put your AF system in Ai Servo or AF-C for the lens to adjust focus while following your subject. The composition of the images will be important. We need to see where the subject is going. Your subject needs to be at one side of the image and going into the other side of the image which should be empty of subjects. I suggest to you go practice with cars in your area before shooting race cars or moving subjects. Practice does make perfect!

How do you Pan?

Select a slightly slower shutter speed than you normally would. Start with 1/30 second and then play around with slower ones. Depending upon the light and the speed of your subject you could end up using anything between 1/60 and 1/8 – although at the slower end you’ll probably end up with camera shake on top of your motion blur.

Position yourself in a place where your view of the subject will not be obstructed by anyone or anything else. Also consider the background of your shot. While it will be blurred if there are distracting shapes or colors it could prove to be distracting. Single coloured or plain backgrounds tend to work best.

As the subject approaches track it smoothly with your camera. For extra support of your camera if you’re using a longer lens or are feeling a little jittery you might like to use a monopod or tripod with a swivelling head.

For best results you’ll probably find that setting yourself up so that you’re parallel to the path of your object (this will help with focussing).

If you have a camera with automatic focus tracking you can let the camera do the focussing for you by half pressing the shutter button (depending upon it’s speed and whether it can keep up with the subject)

If your camera doesn’t have fast enough auto focussing you’ll need to pre-focus your camera upon the spot that you’ll end up releasing the shutter.

Once you’ve released the shutter (do it as gently as possible to reduce camera shake) continue to pan with the subject, even after you’ve heard the shot is complete. This smooth follow through will ensure the motion blur is smooth from start to finish in your shot.